Starting in the second semester, William A. Shine Great Neck South High School will begin using open grades. This means that the parents of students will be able to view every grade of their children as they come in. Students have raised concerns about this system for a multitude of reasons:

• People with strict parents risk severe punishment over just 1 bad grade when quarter grades are often unaffected by these.
• Most teachers do not grade solely based on tests or other assignments. In some classes, class participation is a major aspect of the grade. A parent might preemptively punish their child for having an 86 test average, even though when the report card comes, their child will have an A.
• Students will be more stressed than they already are with their parents breathing down their throats more than they already do.
• Open grades won't actually help anyone. Our parents being able to track our progress in classes throughout the quarter won't help us at all. If a student is doing poorly in a class, they either need to study more or drop the class. Most parents will just respond with anger, rather than trying to figure out how to help the kid.
• Due to this is starting in the 2nd semester, which starts January 28th, seniors with strict parents are screwed.
• There was almost no warning of this happening. This was only told to parents via email a few days prior to this petition going live. Students only found out about this because of parents telling their children, who then told other students. Students, parents, and teachers (to my knowledge) had no chance to give input or voice concerns over this.
  • While not the purpose of this petition, this once again raises a serious concern about the often criticized communication between our school administration and the students. Administration seems to find enjoyment in only telling parents (usually by email) about things that concern us, while never telling students about it at all, even though we have school issued emails. Previous times this has happened include, but are not limited to, new school safety measures, a potential school shooter threat, and the death of our beloved dean, Mrs. Passarella. Instead of improving transparency with parents, which open grades is apparently supposed to do, they should improve transparency with the students, the people who actually go to this school.
• Click here to read an excellent 2017 New York Times article about why having open grades at a competitive and stressful school like Great Neck South is a bad idea.
  • This quote is very telling of the situation: "While there’s limited evidence on the benefit of grading portals on academic achievement, there is plenty of research to show that extrinsic motivators, such as grades, as well as parental surveillance and control, are detrimental to kids’ long-term motivation to learn and undermine their relationships with teachers."

The solution to this problem is very simple: Don't do it. We have seen time and time again that you listen to us when we speak up about issues at our school. Please do not change this time.

Please spread word of this to both students and teachers, who will hopefully bring our concerns to the attention of administration. If this petition is unsuccessful, I hope the fact we showed our disdain for this new system is enough of a reason for teachers to choose not to post grades on Infinite Campus throughout the quarter.

-An anonymous junior at GNSHS with tiger parents.